The war of words between the Left Democratic Front (LDF) and the United Democratic Front (UDF) over the alleged cyber attack on their candidates and leaders in the Vadakara Lok Sabha constituency continues to make waves in the electoral space.
With the campaigning for the election coming to an end in a couple of days, the UDF camp has now grabbed a purported comment made by K.K. Shailja, LDF candidate, in which she has denied the use of any “morphed video” against her by her rivals. Those close to Shafi Parambil, the UDF candidate, are terming this as a “U-turn” by Ms. Shailaja.
On Sunday, however, the CPI(M) leader said she had not gone back on anything that she had said earlier. Ms. Shailaja reiterated that she was the victim of an unethical campaign on social media. She stuck to her earlier claim that morphed pictures and edited videos were being used against her.
It was the LDF candidate who first raked up the cyberbullying complaint against the UDF. In a complaint to the Chief Election Commissioner on March 27, the LDF said that a profile named ‘Minhaj Km Paloli’ posted a morphed photo of Ms. Shailaja and the Kerala Chief Minister in a vulgar manner in a Facebook group named ‘Troll Republic TR’ on March 25. However, both Mr. Shafi and his team denied any role in targeting Ms. Shailaja on social media.
Later, on April 15, the former Health Minister and Mattannur MLA held a press conference to accuse the UDF cyber wing of personally attacking her to counter the LDF’s popularity in the constituency. She claimed that morphed pictures of her were being posted on an Instagram page titled ‘Ente Vadakara KL18’. They were also being forwarded to WhatsApp groups of families. Ms. Shailaja had also claimed that her videos were being edited and even logos of news platforms and the letter pad of a prominent Sunni leader were forged to start a campaign against her. A complaint was filed thereafter.
Both Mr. Parambil and the UDF camp, however, continued to reiterate their earlier stand. K.K. Rema, Vadakara MLA, meanwhile, filed another complaint saying that the video of her press conference with Uma Thomas, MLA, was being edited to show that she had expressed solidarity with Ms. Shailaja. The UDF camp also filed a complaint against a college teacher after an abusive post was spotted on a Facebook page. The UDF is also criticising an alleged sexist remark made by senior CPI(M) leader P. Jayarajan, in a Facebook post, against a group of women supporters of Mr. Parambil.
